The South Carolina Conservative Fallacy
South Carolina’s representatives are far less conservative than the population would indicate. Just because there is an “R” after your name, it doesn’t necessarily mean you hold conservative values.
A perfect example of this is Lindsey Graham. He is running for Senate for the 5th time. He has been in congress for 30 years overall – a career politician. He loves USAID, which funds liberal agendas throughout the world on our dime. He has said of Joe Biden, “What’s not to like?” He told President Trump to go to hell. He tried to convince Trump not to pick JD Vance as his VP in favor of someone closer to a democrat. He is a warmonger. He voted for abortion up to 9 months. Worst of all, his voting record is only 57% conservative. Barely over the line. Not only is he not a conservative, but those who admire him are not either.
Here in South Carolina, the Governor is a republican. The Lieutenant Governor is a republican. The state House is made up of 88 Republicans and 36 Democrats. The state senate is made up of 34 Republicans and 12 Democrats. Those numbers sound good, right? Not really. They’re deceiving. Of the 88 republicans in the House, about 20 are members of the freedom caucus, a faction that reliably votes conservatively and upholds conservative values. Among the rest of the Republican caucus, the average conservative voting record is 32%. Should we not expect more of our representatives?
The state of South Carolina, overall, only turns out 40% conservative legislation. It is often referred to as the bluest red state in the country. For so many in the Republican caucus, the letter following their name does not matter. It’s only tied to the district they represent. For example, my representative, Carla Schuessler, has a 24% conservative voting record, which is shameful. She used to work for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She voted in three democrat primaries for Clinton, Kerry, and Obama. She was a member of a Democrat woman’s group. As the population grew in my area, a new district was created, and Schuessler was the chamber’s choice to be their rubber stamp. Since the people of this district are pretty conservative, they knew she could not win with a “D” after her name. So she switched parties (not ideology), wiped the internet clean as much as possible as far as any connection she had to the Democrat party and ran for the House of Representatives, all while receiving large amounts of money from the chamber of commerce. Last year, she had over $200,000 in corrupt money from the chamber and other organizations who try to elect the least conservative candidates possible. The chamber wants to make money off of building new homes and does not care about public safety. (Hopefully Mark McBride gets elected mayor next week to change that.) People who went to the polls recognized Schuessler from her 20 (or so) mailings, billboards, or mass text messages she was able to afford. Meanwhile, her main opponent, who was far more conservative, had none of those resources. Make no mistake, if this area leaned blue, she’d still have a “D” after her name. Fighting the establishment is an uphill battle, always.
If conservatism in the state of South Carolina were measured by the people who live here, the number would be close to 70%. So why is the legislative output only at 40%? Simple. Apathy. Most of the people here do not pay attention to what’s going on around them. They see what the big money wants them to. Billboards and such. Then they vote for the candidate they saw, without knowing much else.
So what’s the cure? We need to figure out a way to get residents more engaged. To pay more attention to the wool being pulled over their eyes. We have to let them know about the Freedom Caucus and the good work they are doing. But there is one more big thing that can be done – and that’s closing the primaries. Our rino (Republican in name only) state party chairman, Drew McKissick, promised he would close the primaries before his reelection in May. Here we are, nearly 6 months later, and we haven’t heard a word out of him. It’s almost if he just said it to appeal to conservatives to vote him back in. (He also cheated – this year and previous ones, but that’s another story for another day.) Closing the primaries would take away a valuable resource from rinos. They would not be able to appeal to democrats for their votes, as many of them do now. With open primaries a voter can vote in either primary, and often democrats will request a republican ballot so they can vote for the least conservative candidate. It’s the closest they get to having someone they want in there. Without open primaries, the Freedom Caucus would grow, and the state’s legislative turnout would improve greatly.
Leadership starts at the top. Drew has no intention of closing the primaries. He needs to get voted out. Unfortunately, there isn’t another state convention until 2027. Perhaps by then, people will wake up. Part of this blog’s goal is to raise awareness. That vision will always be present and never taken for granted.